The MTA is considering replacing side-view mirrors on city buses with cameras in an effort to reduce costs associated with collisions, an official said.

Twenty-five percent of MTA bus collisions each year involve the vehicles’ mirrors, with about 1,800 incidents recorded in 2022, New York City Transit president Richard Davey said at an agency board meeting Wednesday.

What You Need To Know

  • Twenty-five percent of MTA bus collisions each year involve the vehicles’ mirrors, with about 1,800 incidents recorded in 2022

  • Installing digital cameras known as “e-mirrors” on buses would reduce both repair costs and legal fees for the MTA, New York City Transit president Richard Davey

  • Davey said e-mirrors could be installed on some buses within weeks

Installing digital cameras known as “e-mirrors” on buses would reduce both repair costs and legal fees for the MTA, Davey said.

“It’s the large mirrors that you see on our buses that are hitting street poles, other cars, these dining structures that are now in our right-of-way,” he said.

E-mirrors are essentially “back-up cameras” with the ability to stream video of the sides of the bus so drivers can see around the vehicle in real-time, he explained.

“Our mirrors actually stick out a fair bit, and most of them have red and white tape, as an example, on them,” he said. “But what we have found, particularly with the proliferation of dining structures in the city, our mirrors are just hitting more inanimate objects.”

It remains unclear when the MTA plans to do away with bus-mounted side mirrors, but Davey said e-mirrors could be installed on some buses within weeks.

“The goal there is to try this technology out and then reduce our costs,” he said.

Davey said the digital mirrors would also be helpful as the MTA works to install “cockpits” — or glass barriers — at the front of its buses to better protect bus drivers. Light glare on the barriers could obstruct the view of outside mirrors, he said.